The Vital Force Archive

Stephen Thompson takes Loraine Lepine's pronunciation of "E-motion" at the October accreditation as a starting point for how moving first lets the mind rest, separating and reuniting yin and yang Chi.

A transcribed lecture in which Justin Stone traces the Yin and Yang Chi back to the Tao, compares T'ai Chi Chih with Zen meditation, Hatha Yoga and T'ai Chi Ch'uan, and recounts early student results from 1974 onward.

April Leffler likens the almost imperceptible pause at the end of each weight shift to a wave receding or a swing at its apex, and Dan Pienciak explains the knee release that keeps the shift level.

Transcribed from Justin Stone's spoken word CD, Justin describes the tingling fingers, healing heat and three confirmatory signs of Chi flow, quotes Lao Tzu, and outlines a maximum Chi program for athletes.

Kathy Grassel interviews Tyler, a retired Episcopal and Byzantine Rite priest leaving her Albuquerque gym class for Chicago, on how the Tao Teh Ching, yin and yang, and bodily worship shaped his three years of practice.

Tina Wells devoted a class to resting longer between the 19 movements, and the group concluded that pausing lets chi settle, grounds the feet, and mirrors nature's cycles of activity and stillness.

Daniel Pienciak connects the Winter Solstice online retreat he hosted on December 21st to the elliptical yin-yang cycle of practice, describing the hairpin turn between weight shifts as continuous, not frozen.

Greg Berg, who writes free verse himself, examines Justin Stone's Pyramid Poetry form from Climb the Joyous Mountain and reads its seven lines as an ascent of yang and descent of yin.

Pam Towne, after 38 years of Seijaku practice, describes the yin-yang alternation of softness and resistance, lists its massages, tonings, Jing and Joy Song, and quotes Justin Stone calling its discovery the most important event of his life.

Sandy McAlister recounts how her breath settles naturally as she sinks into stillness, citing Justin's insistence that no breathing technique be coupled with T'ai Chi Chih, and a class experiment that found regulated breathing distracting.

Caroline Guilott draws on Justin Stone's exact phrases, from "graceful conclusion" to the hip swivel, and explains why polarity between relaxed, slightly cupped hands is felt in the body rather than the mind.

Transcribed from his spoken word CD, Justin Stone contrasts changing the Chi directly with working through the mind in Zen or Hatha Yoga, and traces Yin and Yang back to the Tao in Chinese cosmology.

Caroline Guilott describes the resting pose that ends each movement, the softening around the t'an t'ien with feet rooted, and her memory of Justin Stone rising early and repeating his own close.

Lorraine Lepine describes the resting position, or graceful conclusion, that punctuates the nineteen movements, and the grounded empty fullness of Chi settling when the body comes to stillness.

From a spoken word CD, Justin Stone recounts the 1974 first class where a priest regained his sense of smell, the tingling and heat students feel, and the stage when T'ai Chi Chih can be done mentally.

Amy Tyksinski describes the "Flowing River Moments" she offers her high school class, then prints students' own written reflections on self-love, the effort of no effort, polarity and balance.

Jan Walker asks the private TCC teacher Facebook group why polarity matters, and Chris McLain, Jessica Lewis, Hannah Hedrick and Barbara Kristoff answer with quiet minds, universal principles and Randolph Stone's polarity therapy.

Sandy McAlister recounts the second Saturday teacher Zoom gatherings, including September's discussion of TCC polarity and which movements have it, October's swap of class handouts, and tips on Cosmic Consciousness Pose.

Carolyn Pogwist describes her post-accreditation difficulty putting T'ai Chi Chih into words, and how one-on-one work with a breast cancer survivor in radiation treatment taught her to teach beginners.

Ann Rutherford defends the closing position as grounding rather than ornament, recounting a student whose ungrounded chi threw Ann into spasms of pain, plus her lightning-rod and kelp teaching images.

Trish Winger names the commitment that a daily group practice creates after 20 years of putting her own practice last, alongside the freedom of solo practice to choose movements and pause.

Eliza Fulton maps the body's subtle anatomy - the toric field, chakras, the shushumna and the koshas from physical to bliss body - and argues TCC's circular movements rebalance them; a short poem by Terry Gay Puckett closes the piece.

Sue Bitney draws on Justin Stone's writings about circulating and balancing the Chi to argue that practice heals the practitioner and the world, citing students' reflections at their final 2021 practice.

Rebecca Paulson's pyramid poem "One" grew out of re-reading Chapter 42 of the Tao Te Ching in Stephen Mitchell's translation, and her note on yin, yang, grounding and the dynamic Chi.

Justin Stone describes human beings as shifting yin and yang energies, explains that blood follows chi and chi follows thought, and argues that T'ai Chi Chih balances energy before illness arises.

Sandy McAlister, in a piece reprinted from August 2008, likens the rest between movements to dough rising, the stillness where yin and yang Chi reintegrate before letting go and moving again.

Rick Davis likens life's transitions, from pandemic isolation to the death of a loved one, to the weight shift, arguing that firm footing and real permanence are found inwardly.

Carmen Brocklehurst introduces Fast Track as Justin Stone taught it, the third speed after T'ai Chi Chih and Seijaku, naming which movements use the hop and which are left out.

Carmen L. Brocklehurst recounts seeing a video of a teacher shifting forward onto two bent knees, and argues that keeping the back knee straightening preserves the balance Justin Stone taught.

John Marquez describes enduring a difficult pandemic year by practicing repeatedly, holding the Zen question "What is this moment lacking?" and deliberately choosing to shelve a dark place and take back joy.